Matchsticks between brood and crown...

[MuswellMetro]

My grandfather used to use two copper pennies under the crown board on his assumption that the copper leached out and killed EFB and the gap gave ventilation

someone nameless always remove most of the pennies , well you could get a lots of sweets in 1950's for 1d

I am a bottom vent man..omf always open except while monitoring, 50mm of Celotex or kingspan......though reading Bernard Mobus treatise on damp and ventilation he advises the insulation should be porous to water vapour

I am therefore thinking of using 100mm of Wool based Roof insulation in a super but it is expensive so will be saving my pennies rather than putting them under the crown board

 

[user 6228]

a 2.5mm spacer (matchstick) at each corner reduces the temperature rise at the top of the frame by ~ 1/3rd

 

[Nic Rhodes]

.though reading Bernard Mobus treatise on damp and ventilation he advises the insulation should be porous to water vapour

MM what book / document / paper is this please? Ta

 

[Outlander]

Looks like a 'no' then.

Have a guest speaker at the BKA tonight (Clive de Bruyn). Don't think I will be mentioning matchsticks.

They have not used those matches and burnt you at that stake then. Good man you got off lightly I feel now run before Olly and MandF turn up.

 

[REDWOOD]

This strikingly resembles an older thread

 

[waverider]

Luckily on my 1st year not having taken on a winter. Good that I ran it past the forum.

Wonder how many other people she (local bee breeder/keeper) has advised on the matchstick method? O'well , each to their own!

 

[drstitson]

many oldtimers (for want of a better word) look to national colony loss figures and presumably accept similar losses.

now ask the big names on here what their winter losses are.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

There's a piece in a recent BBKA magazine (August I think) written as an antidote to The Foragers matchsticks article of the previous year. Also see Dave Cushman's site.

 

[BCBEE]

I.n no expert but this is a case of "if you think it will be better do it"
Not everone has the same hive or treats their bees the same. Same as not everone has the same car.
All cars will look the same in the end as makers strive for aerodynamic perfection so there can only be one shape.

Same as bees. The best way to treat them aint been found yet or we would all be doing it.

 

[itma]

I.n no expert but this is a case of "if you think it will be better do it"
Not everone has the same hive or treats their bees the same. ...

If your hive has a solid floor (bit old-fashioned, but some do) then you are likely to have a winter problem with dampness in the hive, from condensation.

Fifty years and more ago, it was recognised that the damp was bad for the bees (and the hives), and two things were taught to reduce the problem. Firstly tipping the hive slightly forwards at all times, so the condensation can run out at the entrance. Secondly, providing top ventilation by matches or coins.
If you use the old-fashioned floors, then it makes sense to pair them with the old fashioned advice.

But neither of those traditional remedies are appropriate (or needed) with an open (mesh) floor.

Different strategies may apply if your winters routinely involve frozen lakes, 23 hour nights, real reindeer, etc ... but in the UK, its not as cold as in some other places.

 

[Erichalfbee]

If your hive has a solid floor (bit old-fashioned, but some do) then you are likely to have a winter problem with dampness in the hive, from condensation.


If you use the old-fashioned floors, then it makes sense to pair them with the old fashioned advice.

Better to put those matchsticks twixt floor and brood box?

 

[oliver90owner]

Better to put those matchsticks twixt floor and brood box?

I have done and would do, but not matchsticks - I use some strips of thin material. Hive dry and no problems, but hive leaning slightly towards entrance to prevent any water pooling and they were in a sheltered spot (from any driven rain risk).

 

[richardbees]

If I see drops of condensation under the glass of my hive with the glazed cover board....out come the matchsticks.

 

[tonybloke]

My hives are with solid floors, the hives have a 1" piece of wood put under the back of the hive to give a slight slope towards the door. I don't use matchsticks under the crownboard, I put a porter escape in the crown board central hole to provide some ventilation. bees need some condensation in the hive, to dilute honey and to make brood food.
I live nr the east coast in Norfolk, and my garden is very sheltered from wind.
(ain't lost a colony over-winter yet)

now, where's my tin hat?

 

[drstitson]

"If I see drops of condensation under the glass of my hive with the glazed cover board"

do you put insulation on top of the crownboard?????

 

[Hebeegeebee]

"If I see drops of condensation under the glass of my hive with the glazed cover board"

do you put insulation on top of the crownboard?????

The question relates to the poor insulation of plastic or glass. Put a piece over a hive and it is covered in condensation in seconds. Yes that would happen to wood too but wood can breathe.
Many people have written if you gloss paint a wooden single-walled hive it rots in no time.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

My hives are with solid floors, the hives have a 1" piece of wood put under the back of the hive to give a slight slope towards the door. I don't use matchsticks under the crownboard, I put a porter escape in the crown board central hole to provide some ventilation. bees need some condensation in the hive, to dilute honey and to make brood food.
I live nr the east coast in Norfolk, and my garden is very sheltered from wind.
(ain't lost a colony over-winter yet)

now, where's my tin hat?

I have mesh floors and some insulation on the top. I've not lost a colony either. Just the odd duff queen.

For those that don't know, Tony is a short distance from me. We use different practice and the bees seem to survive either way.

However matchsticks AND a mesh floor is a sort of hybrid - top ventillation from the older hive and bottom ventillation from the new. Nats and Langstroths were not originally designed with a mesh floor.

There use to be QUILTS used too I understand. (There's an old 30's WBC movie on youtube showing them I recall).

Now we have a GLASS QUILT. Whoever came up with that name? How can you quilt glass?

 

[tonybloke]

Now we have a GLASS QUILT. Whoever came up with that name? How can you quilt glass?

fibre glass (woven) perhaps?

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

I have mesh floors and some insulation on the top. I've not lost a colony either. Just the odd duff queen.

For those that don't know, Tony is a short distance from me. We use different practice and the bees seem to survive either way.

However matchsticks AND a mesh floor is a sort of hybrid - top ventillation from the older hive and bottom ventillation from the new. Nats and Langstroths were not originally designed with a mesh floor.

There use to be QUILTS used too I understand. (There's an old 30's WBC movie on youtube showing them I recall).

Now we have a GLASS QUILT. Whoever came up with that name? How can you quilt glass?

Maybee it is a double glazed unit with leading? getit?




What seems like many moons ago now (but only six) I was researching the old CDB hive which was designed for wetter areas of Ireland and Scotland When the inhabitants had been herded into small areas that would not sustain them. The design has a ventilation device, that can be closed, in the floor, and a cone bee escape in the roof which was of a sloping design this would seem to give adequate ventilation in wet cold weather. Presumably any condensation would run to the lowest points on the roof section of the hive. Now with OMF. and ventilation in the roof of the National hive the advice about matchsticks seems like overkill, perhaps literaly in colder areas.

 

[For want of a better word]

I was advised by a local beekeeper to place a matchstick on each corner between the brood box and crown-board over winter to aid in preventing damp.

Anyone here practice such a method?

Should I put matchsticks under the back of my skep!

Grandad back in the first half of the last century used to put a cover on top of the solid floor WBC's made from thick felt... this was called a quilt, and probably gave good insulating and ventilation properties.

Obviously the word quilt was moved on to mean any cover under the hive lid... there are many descriptive words like this that have been transposed to modern life....